Get to Know Berkleigh Cirilli: Teacher left job at chamber to help improve schools

Foley High School’s 2010-11 Teacher of the Year did not start out her career in education.

Berkleigh Cirilli

Foley resident Berkleigh Cirilli was director of communications for the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce when she made the leap.

She said one of the main things businesses look at when seeking a location is whether the area’s schools are soundly progressive, and her in work with the chamber, she met many members of the community to talk about the schools.

"Through the course of all that, I was feeling like I had to defend our schools," Cirilli said. "I’m a product of the public schools," she said. She graduated from Foley High in 1983, and her daughter, Victoria, is also a student in Baldwin County schools.

Cirilli recalls thinking, "You know, public schools are doing a lot of things right." "I wanted to try to make a difference," she said. When she found out that Foley High School had a position open, she called the principal, was granted an interview and was hired.

Cirilli, who has a bachelor’s degree in English, creative writing and political science from Troy State University, underwent the alternative baccalaureate certificate program at the University of South Alabama in order to receive the certification she needed to teach in the state.

She completed the program in 18 months while she was teaching at Foley, she said.

Cirilli has been teaching at Foley High for five years, the first four years teaching ninth-grade English.

This year she teaches three elective courses: journalism, newspaper production and oral communications.

"I enjoy teaching. I love the students. It’s very challenging," Cirilli said. "I feel very honored to have been selected as teacher of the year," she said, "I work with an incredible group of educators."

The honor is "affirmation that you’ve been doing a good job, that someone’s seeing you’re at least trying to make a difference," she said.

"So many teachers are not given enough credit for what they do with their classes," she said. She said many teachers spend a lot of time "reaching out to students to try to help them in any way that they can."

She said she also feels sometimes that "teenagers are not given enough credit for being talented, good," and an important part of the community.

"I’m very proud of Foley High School," Cirilli said. She said she enjoyed being a student at the school. "I had some great teachers," who were role models for her teaching style, she said.

Cirilli is sponsor of the Junior Optimist Club and the Mythology Club.

Last year, she was president of the Parent-Teacher-Student Organization, and this year she is serving on the board.

She is also a member of the Foley Optimist Club and is a lector at St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church.

Cirilli, who grew up in the Soldier’s Creek area, lived in North Carolina for about 10 years. She said she followed her sister there.

While living in North Carolina, Cirilli met her husband, Vic, and they have now been married about 16 years. They decided to move back to the area in 2000 when their daughter was a toddler, Cirilli said, because they wanted her to be close to her grandparents.